Artificial Intelligence (AI) vs. Human Intelligence (HI) — Competing or Complimenting?

AlphaGo, the AI computer beating Lee Sedol in 2016 further accelerated AI vs. HI debate!

And why not?

Lee Sedol, the unbeaten 18-times ‘Go’ world champion defeated by Google’s DeepMind AI computer AlphaGo.

In today’s world, from online shopping to raising a query to Alexa, Siri or Cortana — we interact with Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms frequently, without even knowing in many cases.

The term AI is not new and has been active since 1950s, albeit it was for select group of researchers and techies. It couldn’t reach to masses earlier because there wasn’t enough data, memory, and processing speed to accomplish anything meaningful.

However, in today’s digital omni-channel connectivity, processing the large data is becoming an ever-increasing norm. AI algorithms are relying on cloud platforms to suffice this requirement — the pace and race is increasing day by day!

With AI catching up as a highly desired and admired feature, the question is where does it lead to?

Is Artificial Intelligence (AI) competing with Human intelligence (HI)?

The Rhetoric today

The pace of research & development, being conducted in the field of AI intimidates many. It suggests that a job crisis will unfold, as lot of tasks are more efficiently executed by machines. There have been numerous reports and papers suggesting that a large section of the human workforce will be replaced by AI led machines in the years to come, and the count of the jobs up for potential replacement, lands in multi millions.

While above is true, the other fact and good news is that there are many potential jobs for humans which haven’t been invented yet!

AI vs. HI salient features

The AI application have faster execution speed, have higher operational reliability and accuracy in complex and repetitive jobs compared to humans. Deploying machines and robots have proven to be far more efficient in Assembly lines set up, and in First responder situations.

However, AI-powered machines make decisions based on events and their association with them, but they lack ‘common sense’. Be it any kind of an industry — by deploying an extensive AI, human interaction and human judgment cannot be replaced by machines. The sense of logic, reasoning, applying the rational, is what makes humans stand out.

Machines may be able to impersonate humans to a certain extent, but their knowledge goes out-of-the-window, when making rational decisions like humans. The real-world need a holistic approach, understanding the principles of ‘Cause’ and ‘Effect’!

Summing up

Artificial Intelligence is already taking the world by storm. We are headed towards a reality, where humans and machines will be working more closely than ever.

It would be prudent to conclude that AI led machines can be relied upon when it comes to decisions based on available data and facts. However, AI is still in its developmental stage and has a whole new dimension of an endless pool of opportunities for humans to explore.

Having said so, its’ future lies in how well we govern it within human values and safety nets. An active debate around the world on ethical principles of AI is already on.

I foresee that with right governance and ethical principles in place, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is going to be a huge complement, instead of competition to Human Intelligence (HI). Their synergy will catapult our world to a new league.

Be ready to embrace it!